The Mac app store

The success of the app store for iOS devices has led Apple to create a similar one for Macintosh computers, as well.  This will allow developers to reach a larger audience on OS X, and allow users to find, evaluate, purchase, and install software much more easily.

If you use a Mac, go up to the apple menu in the upper left corner of your screen, and click on "software update".  You will probably get a dialog box with a few different updates, some of which may require you to restart your Mac.  This is a good idea anyway, even if you don't care about the app store.

Once it has installed the updates, you will find a new icon in the doc at the bottom of your screen that matches the one on iOS devices; a blue circle with an "A" in the center.  Clicking on it launches the app store, with an interface that is very familiar to many of us.  The first app to catch my eye is my perennial favorite, Evernote (which is free, btw).

The install process really is as easy as it is on a iOS device, at least in my first try.  The new app appeared a few seconds later in my dock, ready to go.

I looked for some of my other favorite OS X software, and I don't see it, yet (Quicksilver, Nocturne, Scrivener).  It will be interesting to see if these established applications make their way into that store, or not.

The day has finally arrived!

OK, so Scott, my brother in law, would agree that the day we are *really* waiting for is the day we all get flying cars.  But short of that, we now have a better way to read articles and documents than printing them to comment once, and then file/shred/pile/recycle.  The iPad app called GoodReader.  Good.iWare Ltd has an iPhone version, but I must admit I haven't tried it.  

Many people, particularly those of us in academia (or in science, or publishing) know this situation all too well.  We have piles of documents that we don't want to read on the screen because our eyes get tired *and* we want to mark them up for ourselves or others.  So we print them out *once*, mark them up with a pen or pencil, and then send those comments on to whoever needs them.

"I *have* to print them" we say, "because my eyes get too tired from looking at a screen.  And my free PDF reader on my laptop won't save comments for others.  And my laptop is too heavy."  

This app, on an iPad, solves all those problems, using the extremely common ".pdf" file type.

1. It offers a *plethora* of mark up options (follow the link for more screenshots).  Some of them are structured, typed, and pretty, others are more like marking up by hand.
2. It saves all those markups as a second version of the file, so you can share either the untouched original or the one with your comments.
3. An iPad is much lighter than a laptop.  And certainly much lighter than a big pile of papers or manuscripts or journal articles.
4. And its battery runs much longer than a laptop.
5. Tired eyes?  It offers contrast control so that you can make it nice and soft for your tired, end of the day, been staring at screens all day eyes (use "nocturne" or similar tools to do this on your laptop, too!).  And scroll down to see how the "zoomed in" view works.  Simple touchscreen gestures bring the whole column up to the width of the screen (in either landscape or portrait orientation).  How big would your stack of papers be if you printed everything at that font size?  

I think this is a key reason that the iPad is a better choice for academic types than the Kindle.  I know there are annotation features built into the Kindle, but that clunky keyboard simply can't keep up with apps like this one.  Furthermore, I think folks that prefer the Kindle screen simply haven't played with the settings on an iPad enough.  The one exception to that would be bright sun, in all honesty.

Happy reading!

Goodreader zoomed in

A word on wall warts

Lots of folks have received iPads, iPods etc for presents through the holiday season (including Mana!).  It is worth knowing a bit about those little wall warts that come with your gadgets.  They take the current from the wall and convert it, so that your little handheld gadget can digest it.

The iPhone/iPod ones are little cubes.  Very handy and elegant.  However, they don't work for iPads, which need stronger juice.

The iPad one looks like a smaller version of the one that came with my macbook pro ("MPB" for those "in the know").  It has a folding plug.  It *will* work for the iPods and iPhones in your house.

You can also find third party ones, which are likely to be cheaper than the Apple ones.  Beware of these, as you often get what you paid for.  I found one that seemed like a deal at RadioShack (now known simply as "TheShack").  It does work on iPhones and iPods, however it makes a high-pitched sound when nothing is plugged into it.  I haven't even tried the iPad in it.

These gadgets, specifically their high-tech batteries, are also finicky about car chargers, by the way.  My recommendation is to buy any of these accessories at a place where it isn't hard to return them if necessary!

I'm thinking of investing in some of these when they come out, as we have a few spots where we very frequently charge our gadgets, and I like the idea that they aren't vampires, sucking power even when when nothing is plugged into them (a drawback of the wall warts in general).

Happy Birthday, Pop!

This post is a birthday tribute to my dad, aka Jon and Pop.

Not everyone knows this, but he is as much of a gadget fan as I am.  He even had an iPad before we bought one!

I've been dreaming of a post about "apps for grownups" and this seems like the perfect occasion.  Here's my list for him, and anyone else who would like to join him.  He already has some of these, but I'm making a few more suggestions in his honor.  Tap on the links to be taken to the app in the app store.

Media basics:

It is fun to watch and listen with the iPad.  Netflix and Pandora are must-haves, for the traditional media brought over to the iPad.  In addition, however, the iPad supports new forms of media browsing (I'll call it, for lack of a better word).  TED is full of brilliant people giving engaging, big-picture talks that are wonderful, intelligent diversions and inspiration.  Aweditorium is a visual treat that blends the old "pop up video" experience with music discovery.  VLC media player is a port of the application for Mac that plays almost any media file that other things won't do.  Dropbox allows for cloud-based synching of media and other files across gadgets effortlessly.

Reading:

"Browsing" might be a better word for some of these apps, too.  The iBooks app is doing well, alongside the Kindle app (they are free, so why not have both?).  Stanza is a really nice reader that serves the smaller ebook outlets.  Flipboard is a favorite of Apple's, which turns the media links from social media into a readable electronic magazine-like experience.  Pulse (which I mentioned recently) does a similar thing with RSS feeds from websites and blogs, similar to what one might use feedburner or google reader for.  Andrew says it doesn't handle his 500+ feeds very well, but for most of us mortals it is a pleasant way to keep up with things.   Instapaper is an eternal favorite of mine, I have mentioned it on this blog before.  It takes those long-form posts from anywhere that you discover but don't have time to read, and strips out all the gaudy gee-gaws that hurt your eyes when you try to read real stuff on the web.  In addition, the NY Times and NPR both have apps that provide their high-quality content in a new form.  Both have had stability problems over time, but I think they are tuned up and their editorial quality can't be matched.  If I can pick on Dad's age just once, I bet he'll remember a lot of the photos in the Life Magazine photo archive app :-)

Creativity:

Andrew's recommendation of Art Studio is a great one, Jonas and I have used it some now and it really shines.  Particularly when you master the functions of using multiple layers and importing photos (that got your attention, didn't it, Pop?).  Another good recommendation from Andrew is Beatwave, which allows even musical newbies to make fun compositions in a pentatonic scale environment (which means almost any combinations of notes sounds good).  I would put synthPond in there with it, which is really made for the iPhone but is fun on the iPad, too.  It is a crazy mix of bell choir, astronomy, and pebbles in a pond. iThoughts HD is a *great* mindmapping tool, for those of us who like to organize our thoughts that way.

Reference and research:

The internet movie database (imdb for those in the know) is a great reference when one is watching something and thinking "who the hell is that actor?".  WolframAlpha has a very cool app which is like a google search plus artificial intelligence (as inspired by Wolfram's TED talk, try asking it "am I drunk?").   Zillow is great for you real estate junkies, although the pictures aren't very hi-res.  Kayak HD is excellent for researching travel (those last two are beginning to look like a list for Jodie for a moment!).  

A sub category of reference and research would be "cooking".  Dad's birthday dinner is coming out of the Wholefoods app, which I used to compose a shopping list and email the list and recipe to Sam's iphone while she was on her way to the store.  Epicurious also has a gorgeous iPad-specific app which is a treat.


Guilty pleasures:

Dad, you know all those fast little cars we dream about?  Real Racing HD is as close as we'll get to test driving many of them.  It makes riding a recumbent on a wind trainer positively exhilirating (which is saying something, isn't it?).  And we can compare time trials online ;-)

Happy birthday, Pop!  Thanks for all that you do, and all that you are!

Love
the Cameras

This looks interesting!

I haven't had time to read all the way through this yet, but it looks like a really interesting resource for folks who want to understand the internet more thoroughly.  Tell me what you think in the comments, if you care to :-)

http://www.20thingsilearned.com/

Ian

New news reader!

I'm really enjoying Pulse as a way to pull together feeds from various news outlets and blogs.  It is OK on the ipods and iphones, but it really shines on the iPad.  You may not like the feeds that are pre-loaded into it but if you fill it up with your favorite news sources, it is pretty shiny!